7:20am Thursday 18th June 2009
By Scott Mullins
TWO schools are set to benefit from Government funding worth £200 million.
Staff at Midfield Primary School in Orpington will get £350,000 to provide an integrated youth resource centre, enabling the borough’s youth offending team, social workers and mental health services to work more closely.
Meanwhile, Hawes Down Infant and Junior schools in West Wickham will get £470,000 to pay for therapy rooms, a creche and parents’ room.
There will also be facilities for educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, specialist teachers and social workers.
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls said: “I want these winning projects to lay down a marker, not just for their local communities but the rest of the country.
"This is setting a benchmark for how schools and wider children’s services in the 21st century should operate and the role they can play in raising the standards for all children.
“I’ve always been clear that it is better to intervene early to prevent a problem, than let it develop into a crisis."
He added: "Schools do not exist in isolation to the rest of their communities.
"Many schools already join up work with public, voluntary and private sector services and organisations – that should be the norm in every single school.”
The Bromley schools join 99 other projects across England as the Government attempts to combine children and family services onto single sites.
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